Bukit Brown: World Monuments Watch 2014

武吉布朗展览系列华语讲座

2014年9月20日（星期六）

地点：新加坡国家图书馆5楼，Possibility Room

2-3pm坟墓建筑（主讲者：赖启健博士）

3-4pm 说书的石头—武吉布朗坟场坟墓石雕中的故事（主讲者：洪毅瀚先生）

4-5pm 记录武吉布朗：地图与制图（主讲人：莫缕勇先生）

如欲出席讲座，请在下列网站登记：

http://www.eventbrite.com/e/bukit-brown-exhibition-public-talks-mandarin-tickets-12507206391

坟墓建筑

主讲者：赖启健博士

武吉布朗坟场的坟墓建筑是它独特物质文化的一部分，为新加坡和本区域以及中国南方之间在社会、文化和经济上的联系提供不少重要的资料。讲座将探讨武吉布朗坟墓建筑的记录和这项工作的重要性。主讲者也将利用纸模型让出席讲座的孩童对 坟墓健 筑有更深一层的认识。

赖启健博士，新加坡注册建筑师，新加坡国立大学建筑系硕士(1996)，美国加州大学柏克莱建筑与都市设计系博士(2005)。他的研究领域为东南亚艺术、建筑、聚落、都市化和景观的历史。 

说书的石头—武吉布朗坟场坟墓石雕中的故事

主讲者：洪毅瀚先生

武吉布朗坟场的坟墓石雕数量庞大、题材丰富，堪称海外华人坟场中的石雕大观园，早年精湛的手工石雕艺术作品随处可见。坟场内许多雕刻精美的石质坟墓构建丝毫不受岁月的洗礼损坏，让百年后的游人有机会一睹它们的风采。无论是江山美人、择贤用才、事亲尽孝或是神话志怪，流传千百年的民间故事和历史典故在石匠的巧手下生动地呈现。

这次讲座将通过大量的图片介绍石雕中的故事题材。

洪毅瀚，工程师，工余参与武吉布朗坟场导览活动和历史文化项目研究，曾在bukitbrown.com网站发表关于武吉布朗坟场坟墓装饰题材的博文。

记录武吉布朗：地图与制图
主讲人：莫缕勇先生
在记录武吉布朗文史的过程中，工作团队搜集到了不少非常珍贵和罕见的历史地图和空中照片。主讲人莫缕勇先生将在讲座中呈现这些历史地图和空中照片。同时也会分享一些地图和空中照片中有趣的细节。在另外一方面，由于坟场受到开路工程的影响，约有4000座坟墓需迁移。为了记录这些坟墓的确切位置，有关当局测量了每一座坟墓的地理坐标。主讲人也会讲解这一测量和绘制坟场地图的过程和结果。

莫缕勇是武吉布朗文史记录工作小组和工作委员会的成员。目前从事地理资讯系统（GIS）的咨询工作，也是地图发烧友及研究者。在武吉布朗文史记录团队里负责研究历史地图与处理地理资讯和绘制地图的工作。曾在新加坡制图单位任职和国家挡案馆工作，是伦敦皇家地理学会会士。

Public Talks in association with the Bukit Brown Exhibition (In Mandarin)

Saturday, 20 September 2014

2-3pm

Speaker: Dr Lai Chee Kien

Title: Tomb Architecture

3-4pm

Speaker: Ang Yik Han

Title: Story Telling Stones – Tales from the Stone Carvings of Bukit Brown Cemetery

4-5pm

Speaker: Mok Ly Yng

Title: Documenting Bukit Brown: Maps and Mapping

Please register your attendance at the following website if you are interested to attend these Mandarin talks:

http://www.eventbrite.com/e/bukit-brown-exhibition-public-talks-mandarin-tickets-12507206391

Tomb architecture
The material culture at Bukit Brown cemetery, including tomb architecture, is unique and offer many insights on Singapore’s social, cultural and economic connections to the region and to Southern China and Singapore. This talk discusses the documentation of tomb architecture at Bukit Brown and the importance of such records. There are also opportunities for children at this talk to learn about tomb architecture using paper models.

Dr Lai Chee Kien is a registered architect, and graduated from the National University of Singapore with an M Arch. by research [1996], and then a PhD in History of Architecture & Urban Design from the University of California, Berkeley [2005]. He researches on histories of art, architecture, settlements, urbanism and landscapes in Southeast Asia.

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 Story Telling Stones – Tales from the Stone Carvings of Bukit Brown Cemetery

The large number and varied themes of stone carvings in Bukit Brown veritably make it a museum of stone carvings where masterpieces of the past can be encountered at every turn. Many of the intricately carved stone structures in the cemetery are untouched by the ravages of time, and visitors can still see them in their full glory a century after they were created. Be it themes of heroes and beauties, appointing wise officials, filial piety or the supernatural, folktales and historical stories which have been passed down for centuries come to life in the hands of skilled craftsmen. During this talk, numerous pictures will be used to introduce the themes found in the stone carving stories.

Ang Yik Han is an engineer by profession. He is involved in conducting tours in Bukit Brown Cemetery and historical and cultural research. His posts on the decorative motifs of tombs in Bukit Brown Cemetery have appeared on the All Things Bukit Brown website (bukitbrown.com).

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Documenting Bukit Brown: maps and mapping

This talk showcases the various historical maps and air photos which were collected during the Bukit Brown Cemetery Documentation Project.  Interesting details from these maps and air photos will be highlighted.  The process of surveying and mapping the affected graves as part of the documentation will also be covered.  The potential uses of these maps and surveyed data will be briefly touched on.

Mok Ly Yng is a member of the Bukit Brown Cemetery Documentation Project team and the Working Committee. He researched and sourced for the historical and current maps of the Bukit Brown area for the project.  He had worked in Mapping Unit and the National Archives of Singapore.  He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society of London.  He researches the history of surveys and mapping of Singapore as a hobby.

The Story of Bo Ya and Zhong Ziqi carved in a tombstone (photo_Ang Yik Han)

The Descendants’ Stories – A Guided Walk at Bukit Brown (English)

Sunday 24  August’14 :   9 am – 11.30am

Meeting Place: Bukit Brown Gates at end of Lorong Halwa.

For those who have written in asking about when the next upcoming tours will be:

Please check this blog bukitbrown.com under events every week for  upcoming guided walks. Blog posts should be up by Wednesday.  Guided walks are dependent on volunteers schedules but we try our best to organise guided walks every weekend.

The fastest way to find out about upcoming guided walks is to join the Heritage Singapore Bukit Brown facebook group here . The guided walks are generated as event pages from this FB group and are always pinned on top of the page. Please note if you are using a mobile device to access the FB page, you have to click on the pinned posts to get details.

Thank you everyone who wrote in, our apologies, we are unable to respond  individually.

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To those who have registered and received confirmation, please meet by 9am. Just as you  pass enter the Bukit Brown gates,  on your left would be the LTA site office. This would be the gathering point of Sunday’s guided walk.  See you!

This guided walk is  now full.

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All Things Bukit Brown* is pleased to curate a new guided walk in conjunction with the exhibition “Bukit Brown: Documenting New Horizons of Knowledge”

About the Walk:  News that a highway was to be built across Bukit Brown in 2011 led some descendants who had lost touch with their ancestral tombs to embark on a quest to find them. Some of those who were successful shared their stories of reconnecting with their ancestors and family oral history with the volunteers on the ground, called Brownies.

In this tour, Brownies will share stories recounted to them by descendants they have met and who have become friends. But the highlight of this guided walk is the descendants, who will share their stories first hand at the tombs of their ancestors.

Noreen Chan is the descendant of a long line of influential and wealthy “compradors” – the business relationship managers of the old banking regime. At the tomb of Chia Hood Theam, Noreen will recount stories of her maternal great-great grandfather’s frugality and contributions to women’s education from family oral traditions and historical records.

In Tiong Bahru, Singapore’s earliest housing estate, is a street named after Lim Liak (Leack). Lim Soon Hoe, a descendant of the 6^th generation, will unravel the history of Lim Leack’s contributions to the mining industry in the region and his personal search for the family’s private burial grounds in a place today translated as “New Cemetery”.

The Brownies will reveal who is the inspiration behind Emily of the award- winning play “Emily of Emerald Hill” and share how a descendant “re-fengshui’ed” her great grandfather’s tomb upon discovery in 2012.

The guided walk will end at the largest family tomb cluster in Singapore, the “Ong Sam Leong” tomb cluster featured in the exhibition poster – the jewel in the crown of Bukit Brown due to its sheer size.

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Disclaimer: By agreeing to take walking tours  of Bukit Brown Cemetery, I understand and accept that I must be physically fit and able to do so.To the extent permissible by law, I agree to assume any and all risk of injury or bodily harm to myself and persons in my care (including child or ward) Please read if you are attending our guided walks for the first time, useful info on safety : Getting There/游览信息

*All Things Bukit Brown is the banner for a group of volunteers called “Brownies” who conduct regular weekend guided walks and do independent research on the heritage, habitat and history of Bukit Brown. To date, they have guided almost 12,000 people since they started their guided walks at the beginning of 2012.

Chia Hood Theam in a car driven by his son Chia Keng Tye (photo CHT Family Archives)

The Patriarch Chia Hood Theam (photo Family Archives)

Chia Hood Theam’s grave at the time of his funeral. Today the grave and its surrounds look very different (photo CHT Family Archives)

As part of the exhibition, Bukit Brown: Documenting New Horizons of Knowledge, a series of English  (Sun 17 Aug’ 14) and Mandarin ( Sat 20th Sept’14) Public Talks  have been programmed by the documentation team under Dr. Hui Yew-Foong.

Location:  Possibility Room on Level 5

(Look out for guided walks in English and Mandarin specially curated by
All Things Bukit Brown to complement the exhibition/talk when you attend
the talks,details to be posted later) 

Date: Sunday 17th August (English) Registration here (through eventbrite)

2-3pm Speaker: Dr Hui Yew-Foong

Bukit Brown: Documenting New Horizons of Knowledge

3-4pm Speakers: Dr Natalie Pang and Dr Liew Kai Khiun

The Internet and Bukit Brown

4-5pm  Speakers: Lim Chen Sian and Angela Goh

Digging Bukit Brown

5-6pm  Speaker: Mok Ly Yng

Documenting Bukit Brown: Maps and Mapping

Saturday, 20 September 2014 (Mandarin) Registration here through eventbrite

2-3pm  Speaker: Dr Lai Chee Kien

Tomb Architecture 

3-4pm Speaker: Ang Yik Han

Story Telling Stones – Tales from the Stone Carvings of Bukit Brown Cemetery 

4-5pm  Speaker: Mok Ly Yng

Documenting Bukit Brown: Maps and Mapping

 Selected Abstracts  and Bios

Bukit Brown: Documenting New Horizons of Knowledge

This talk introduces the various findings that have emerged from the multi-disciplinary study of Bukit Brown Cemetery. The speaker will share highlights from oral history interviews, field documentation of graves and fieldwork studying rituals performed at Bukit Brown. At the same time, the talk will demonstrate how various techniques and technologies employed in the course of documentation has enhanced the collection of data.

Dr Hui Yew-Foong is Lead Researcher of the Bukit Brown Documentation Project. He is an anthropologist by training, and has conducted fieldwork in Indonesia, Malaysia, China, Hong Kong and the US. Prior to taking up the documentation of Bukit Brown Cemetery, he was involved in leading a group of volunteers to document Kwong Hou Sua Teochew Cemetery before it was fully exhumed. Dr Hui is the author of Strangers at Home: History and Subjectivity among the Chinese Communities of West Kalimantan, Indonesia.

Tomb architecture
The material culture at Bukit Brown cemetery, including tomb architecture, is unique and offer many insights on Singapore’s social, cultural and economic connections to the region and to Southern China and Singapore. This talk discusses the documentation of tomb architecture at Bukit Brown and the importance of such records. There are also opportunities for children at this talk to learn about tomb architecture using paper models.

Dr Lai Chee Kien is a registered architect, and graduated from the National University of Singapore with an M Arch. by research [1996], and then a PhD in History of Architecture & Urban Design from the University of California, Berkeley [2005]. He researches on histories of art, architecture, settlements, urbanism and landscapes in Southeast Asia.

(photo Ang Hock Chuan)

(photo Ang Hock Chuan)

Image designed by Lai Chee Kien

National Day Celebrations@ Esplanade is here again with an exhibition :”Our Brick Estate”  and a series of talks on Sunday 10th August’14

Venue: library@esplanade (Open Stage)

Sunday 10th August’14: Talks

3pm – 3.45 pm
Our Brick Estate by Lai Chee Kien (赖启健)

Our island-city’s early foundations were laid at a time when the building material industry flourished. Join architectural and urban historian Lai Chee Kien as he traces the history of our local brick industry, from the early colonial period when they were handmade, to their industrial production and extensive use during our early days of nation-building.

This talk will be accompanied by an exhibition of the same title for the month of August.

4.30-5.15pm

Grandfathers’Roads : Legacy of Our Pioneers by Raymond Goh

Raymond Goh has been studying the legacies behind famous roads that have been named after the revolutionaries, war heroes, and builders of Singapore. Join him as he shares interesting stories behind some of them. Raymond is a specialised heritage tour guide who conducts tours for schools, community clubs and societies.

6pm – 6.45pm

Once Upon a Yesterday by Alex Tan Tiong Hee

Share your comments and sentiments with Alex Tan as he navigates the nation’s past in Once Upon A Yesterday, an interactive story tracing some of the historical events significant to Singapore’s socio-political environment in the 1950s, as seen through the eyes of a young boy. Alex graduated in law and is a trustee of the Settlement of Dr Lim Boon Keng (1921) and a committee member of the Singapore Heritage Society.

(photo Khoo Ee Hoon)

Preamble : Hungry Ghost Festival

Saturday, 26th July was the eve of what is popularly known as the Hungry Ghost Festival, and less well known by its traditional name of  Zhongyuan Jie, which in essence is also about honouring ancestors.    It takes place at the start of  the Chinese 7th lunar month, and it is when the gates of hell  open and the spirits of dead are free to wander among the living  for a month. To appease them, offerings and entertainment is laid out  by  descendants at their homes, but  also by temples,  business and clan  associations. This year, the prediction was that  hell’s gates will open at 11pm on the eve of the festival.

The Salvation Rituals

At Bukit Brown,  devotees from the Taoist temple  Xuan Jiang Dian (Heng Kang Tian ) conducted a “chao du” or “salvation rituals”  –  considered an act of compassion – specifically for the forgotten and lost spirits there.

This is the 3rd year in a row, Xuan Jiang Dian  have done this,  ever since in fact news of the building of the highway across Bukit Brown in 2011 was announced. Exhumations of the some 4.153 graves which are in the way of the highway are drawing to  a close.  So there was added interest in this year’s ritual which was covered  by our national newspapers. The National Heritage Board (NHB) shared that a specially commissioned video on rites and rituals at Bukit Brown will be uploaded soon to you tube.

A First Hand Account of “chao du”

The ” chao du”  ceremony which was witnessed also by Brownies and other well wishers, started at around 8.3opm . It consisted of the setting up of  an altar table with offerings at the major  junction of  the 4 roads in  Bukit Brown which leads to Blocks 1, 5, 4 and 3.

The Taoist priests from China, resplendent in their robes, chanted and walked several ceremonial  rounds  in the area calling upon lost spirits. There was something soothing in their chanting and the air was redolent with the scent of what must have been a hundred lighted joss sticks. Each participant carried  3 sticks each throughout  the 40 minute long chanting.

There was a stillness in the air and the smoke and swish of the robes  carried the movement of the night.  It ended with the burning of paper offerings and just as quickly as it was set up, the devotees packed up and left, with the  the candles planted still burning  and the last vestiges of the paper offerings smouldering down to embers.  

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Photo Gallery  :

The arrival of devotees making their way to the ceremonial site for the set up (photo Chua Ai Lin)

Chao-du (photo Terence Heng)

Paper offerings (photo Zhi Hao)

Path of candle lights to show the spirits the way (photo Claire Leow)

(photo Zhi Hao)

Side View : Off site 3 tablets,  set up by  Xuan Jiang Dian at Bukit Merah Blk 123 for the wandering spirits of Kopi Sua aka Bukit Brown. [right] for animals killed during agricultural activity (prior to it becoming a cemetery)[centre] for wandering souls[left] for animals killed during construction works (photo and caption by Chua Ai Lin)

Front View : Off site 3 tablets,  set up by  Xuan Jiang Dian  at Bukit Merah Blk 123 for the wandering spirits of Kopi Sua aka Bukit Brown. [right] for animals killed during agricultural activity (prior to it becoming a cemetery)[centre] for wandering souls [left] for animals killed during construction works (photo Raymond Goh)

Report on the Straits Times 27 July,’14 on the ceremony

Report on Lianhe Zaobao, 27th July’14

Report on  Lianhe Zaobao on a ritual conducted last night at Bt. Brown which marked the opening of the 7th month:  A group from Heng Kang Tian including 8 Taoist priests conducted the ritual to invite spirits to a salvation ceremony conducted today in front of Bukit Merah View Block 123. The group has been going to Bt. Brown for the past two years to invite spirits from tombs which are not tended to by descendants. The event was attended by Brownies and participants of tours at the cemetery. It was also recorded by the Bt Brown Documentation Team. NHB is currently preparing a 10-15 min documentary on the rituals carried out at Bt Brown cemetery. This will be uploaded to the NHB channel on youtube, “yesterdaysg”, around end next month. (summary by  Ang Yik Han) Full report in Chinese: